shyguy-- what's worse than the snobby people are the close minded people. the ones who say i'll never listen to classical, jazz, etc. how can you be so stuck up that you only listen to one kind of music, saying it's "the best"? nothing is "better" or "worse" than something else, it's just different. i bet if you told them that listening to classical made them smarter, or opened up new thoughts, etc, they'd give it a shot. here's an interesting study to conduct;
have one fighter listen to aggressive music before a fight. have another fighter listen to depressing, or negative music. have another fighter listen to classical. see who's more alert in the ring, see who fights harder, smarter, slower, etc. also, try to find out, from the fighters, what they were thinking about in the ring. thanks for the info on the 1812 and valkyries.

mark l. -- i agree with you on "the ripple" effect. i think if someone is thinking positive, or upbeat thoughts, they feel loose, energetic. if they're thinking negative, or downbeat thoughts, then they feel stiff, or depressed, they don't want to train or work. angry thoughts also make you feel stiff, but they cloud the mind sometimes, and make you work stupid, not calculating, just taking stupid chances every opening. on the music, i've noticed that listening to music while i train/ rest/ recover, helps me stay focused. i block out all the noises and conversations, i perform so much better no matter what i'm doing at that time. I guess you can say i "zone" in better with music, but without music i get all hyper and anxious. my mind starts racing, i pick up every little word or movement or sound, whether i'm supposed to or not. what's that they say? "music to calm the savage beast?" guess it works.